US judge blocks Chippewa's night deer hunt

Federal judge says tribes overstepped their authority

Published On: Dec 17 2012 02:57:31 PM CST

MADISON, Wis. -

A federal judge has blocked Wisconsin's Chippewa tribes from hunting deer at night for this season.

A commission that administers the bands' off-reservation rights authorized tribal hunters to go after deer at night in November. The move runs counter to the state's ban on the practice, but the commission and the tribes argue they could operate outside that ban because the state allowed wolf hunters to take to the woods at night.

But U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb issued an order Monday saying the tribes overstepped their authority when they issued the authorization without state approval.